Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: The same cats from the other two flicks plus Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard
More info: IMDb
Tagline: The Legend Ends
Plot: Despite his tarnished reputation after the events of The Dark Knight, in which he took the rap for Dent's crimes, Batman feels compelled to intervene to assist the city and its police force which is struggling to cope with Bane's plans to destroy the city.
My rating: 9/10
Will I watch it again? Fuck & Yeah!
OK, so now that I've seen it twice (and yesterday it was on an IMAX screen) I'm completely re-doing this review. I first caught this at the first midnight showing which was also during a marathon which included the first two films. By the time DKR came on I'd been in an increasingly warmer (the air conditioner wasn't pumping as hard as it should have) theater for 9 hours, I was getting tired and I was coming off a Coke/popcorn/candy high. These were terrible conditions to see a movie. That night I gave this a 6.5/10. I didn't like it all that much and I had a lot of questions, ala PROMETHEUS (2012), regarding perceived plot holes.
Watching it again with a clear head I can see now that I was wrong about this movie - very, very wrong. It's fantastic. All of my questions seemed ridiculously silly as they were answered on the screen one by one. My only real beef with any of the picture is some of the score mix. There were moments where it was difficult to understand Batman or Bane (or anyone else who wasn't speaking with a plain, normal-volume voice) because the music was too loud. That's annoying. But everything else I totally dug.
I really like Bane's voice. It's different. He made an interesting and fun villain. His fight with Bats at the end was especially good. And I LOVED how the camera stayed on the fight scenes without jerking around with frenetic editing. It was like the good ole days when you could watch a fight and see what the hell was going on. When actors and stuntmen spend weeks and months working on the choreography, it's nice to be able to see all of that hard work pay off and not hidden behind camera tricks and quick edits.
Ann Hathaway surprised the shit out of me. She was fantastic. I loved how she was Catwoman without being 'Catwoman' if you know what I mean. I liked the devastation of the city and how they were able to tie this with the first film. It gives a sense of completion to the three Nolan flicks. I also LOVED the ending (this would be the coda, letting us know what happens to the major characters).
There are some little things (that could be huge to some people) that I'm willing to overlook; things like how quickly Wayne recovers from his injuries, how quickly he trusts Selina Kyle, as well as characters that felt unnecessary enough that they could have been cut with some minor adjusting (I'm looking at you, Foley (Matthew Modine)). I'm going to suspend my disbelief for these things and fill in the blanks myself. This is a near-three hour movie anyway and it's possible some important details were left on the cutting room floor. It could happen. Regardless, it's not the kind of major fuck ups that PROMETHEUS had. I thoroughly enjoyed this picture and I'm so glad I gave it another chance. It's amazing how many things around you can distort how much you like/dislike a movie and how seeing them under the right conditions can completely change all of that.
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Solid review. This is probably my favorite movie of the year for one reason and one reason only: it was probably, if not, the most epic piece of cinema I have seen in quite some time. Great send-off to everybody’s favorite caped-crusader, even as sad as it may be. Now it’s just time for Superman to hit that big-screen once again.
ReplyDeleteI'm chalking my initial reaction to being very tired by the time it started. I'm looking forward to catching it again in a few days and on the IMAX screen. That could make a difference.
ReplyDeleteJust to clear some details because I know you were probably full of popcorn and drowning in coke like the rest of us who endured the 12 hour night, Batman limps because earlier in the movie you learn he has no cartilage in his knee. Basically bone on bone due to too much jumped from multiple story buildings and landing with one knee bent will do this over time. So to help he is given a brace which helps with the limp. The thing they didn't clear up is how does he wear that brace under a tight bat suit? Bane sends the Bat back to the India prison because I think they thought he will be tortured there like Bane was and it is damn near impossible to escape that place. At that point, no one outside of Bane’s group knew that Wayne was Batman. If he went to a local prison he would be found out for sure and would they really keep Bruce Wayne in prison? He could just buy the prison and turn it into another Shangri-la. Plus they needed to figure out some way to tie in the BS of who Bane was. Was he the mercenaries’ child or not? Did he really escape the prison or not? Was he really a girl or not? I am not a professional movie reviewer, but after thinking about it all day, I was overall disappointed by it. I loved Catwoman, Hathaway was excellent. I don’t know why they brought Robin into it? I guess Wayne had to fake his death because he needed to find peace with his inner demons and follow Alfred's advice. Plus Catwoman got a clean slate for helping him out so if they were going to be together, he needed to disappear. Hope you enjoy the second viewing. I will be seeing it again this weekend myself. I really think they just tried to do too much to tie up all the loose ends and it deserves a second viewing when I my rear end is not asleep.
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah. It's all coming back to me now. LOL. I'll probably have to start from scratch with this review after seeing it again. Thanks for clearing that up.
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